Waterbury evening Democrat., 1887-12-13

was able by little painful squeezing to draw 1t out altogether leaving me with simply pair of cuffs dangling from my left hand.
 That this terrible place was swarming with vermin, not only rats and mice, but other kinds, smaller and worse, will be understood without further statement, as well as our helplessness in guarding against them while in the dark and in chains, with not even as much water as we needed for drinking. One of the grievances of the jailer was the great amount of water we drank, or rather wished to drink, for our persuasions shouted up through the trap door could not induce him to greatly increase the allowance which he deemed right, but the officer of the guard would sometimes order him to bring us more, which he would do with great grumbling. Usually the water buckets would be empty long before the time at the giving of food when he judged it proper to replenish them.
 Hunger was also very pressing. and as one or two of the number had managed when searched to secrete little money all the rest had been taken from us-we resolved to try to buy additional food Accordingly Swims was asked if he would buy for us. He asked the guard, and finding no objections, said: "Yes; you can buy, if you have the money" We had very earnest consultation as to the form in which the money would go the fur thest, and finally settled on wheat bread and molasses, as the latter was very cheap. The money was handed up in the evening, and VIC made great calculations on having a royal breakfast next morning all we could eat! Tho time came, and we were moro eager than. usual for the lowering of the bucket, but when it was seized there was only the starving allow ance of corn bread and spoiled pork! Some one called out: "Swims, how about the wheat bread and molasses?'' He leaned over and said, in his slowest and most provoking tones: "B-o-y-s, I lost that moneyr' Could we have reached him, am not sure that he would not have been lost also! It is hard to imag- inc how angry starving men could get under the circumstances. We called to the officer of the guard, who came to the trapdoor and heard our grievance, but only laughed at us, saying that if we trusted Swims with our money we would have to take the consequences. Fortu- nately we had not put quite all our funds on this one venture, and the officer tried his hand with better results; but the amount purchased was too small to be of any COnSlueTaD1e DeueIC.
 A very erroneous impression would be given the reader if he imagined that we spent our time here in nothing but help lessly bemoaning our misery. There were times when our situation seemed over whelnling; but usually we kept our minds busy during waking hours in telling stories, in speculating on the prospects of the war, or planning escape. We had no idea that the rebellion would last much longer; the great armies of Mcclellan and Halleck we thought, would soon crush their opponents, and Mitchell would be upon Chattanooga, and thus deliver us from our horrible confinement. Could we live but little longer tho chances of de- liverance were good.
 We also talked much of home life and friends, and thus became really acquainted for the first time. Hitherto we had known little of each other; but now this inter change of thought and history brought us close together, and caused the hours to pass very much more pleasantly. We talked of future plans when we should be released from this place. We permitted no one to get tdownspirited. Had we been confined in solitude, the dread and fore boding would have been more terrible. pe.H H+.MEIbby'sG C. 'o's'A0 '''AA''' Ae''I e'Do Every pi aution was taken to preserve our health tiHe. t we might be able when there came 6 chance for escape. No one was allowed to stand so as to obstruct the ventilation through the wall holes; the exercise possible in such q limited Space was taken; and the help and good will of all was wonderful relief; but we needed every possible support.
 When ell of our party were brought into the prison we carefully reviewed the l situation and ascertained how much the enemy had learned in regard to us. Most l had already given names and regiments, and had claimed to be American soldiers. l Nothing could be gained, therefore, by denying what we had done, or our true l character The first could be proved by | those who saw us on the train, by our l captors, or by our own admissions; the latter, so far from wishing to deny, was 1 our only possible defense. We therefore resolved that we would say, when ex- | amined, that we had been appointed by our officers to serve under Q man whom we had never seen, but whom we sup posed to be an officer from some other l regiment or brigade; that the nature of ] our service was not clearly made known l to us further than it was to destroy some l line of communications in the enemy s l country; that we were in citizens clothing only that we might not alarm the citizens l among whom we were to travel; that we did not see any pickets of the enemy or 1 pass them at any point; that we were in
 no camp; that we supposed our expedi:
 tion to be within the rules of war and
 ourselves entitled to protection as prison
 CTS of war; that we had obeyed Andrews
 as we considered ourselves bound in duty 1 to do; and that if we made false repre-
 sentations, it was only what we were lee
 to do by fear Of discovery. We were not
 to say anything about Campbell being only
 citizen; and were to refuse under all cir
 cumstances to tell who our engineer was
 Admitting that we were under the or
 ders of Andrews would not in the leas
 embarrass him, for this much could b
 proved from what he was actually seen t.
 do on the train, and he had already de
 clared as much when captured. But w
 never revealed anything that would throv : light on his employment as spy in ou
 service The story which we thus planne,
 to tell was so closely adhered to that tn enemy never learned that we were volun
 teers and intelligent participants in tn
 enterprise.
 None of us knew just the line of de
 fense taken by Andrews, or upon what h
 based the hopes he did, certainly, to som
 extent, entertain; but the following is tn most probable:
 He was known to the southerners as